Monday, April 06, 2009

Today, I launched my new web page. Come on over and have a look: www.vickidelany.com. Let me know what you think.

It’s a complete redesign, intended to look modern and clean. One of the features of the new site is that it will be much easier for me to add content, particularly when I have news items to quickly post.

In my opinion a good web page is the most important tool in a professional writer’s promotional tool box. When you have something you want to tell the world, fast and immediate, a web page is the only way to go. You can’t easily send book covers, long reviews, or book trailers by e-mail, but you can put all that on your web page and direct your contacts there. Don’t have e-mail? Then you’re really doomed.

But even more than your contacts, it’s the contacts you don’t have yet that need to access your web page. Rick suggested an author for an event I’m organizing. I looked him up – no web page. Sorry, but I’m not going to hunt him down; I’ll go on to someone else whose books I can find details about and whose contact info is available. I hope that if someone hears my name, perhaps a friend mentions she liked my book, she can find me on the web with just a couple of key strokes, read about my books, read a sample chapter, watch the trailer, maybe check out my bio, and then, hopefully, make the decision to get a book.

The web page name (the URL) should be short and easy to remember, preferably just the writer’s name. You need to be able to tell a prospective web visitor the name and hope they’ll remember it even if you’re nearing the summit of Mount Everest and they don’t have a pen and pencil and your cards are back at base camp.

I have the misfortune of having a fairly common last name that is spelled uncommonly. I can’t call my web page www.vickidelany-nonotdelaney.com. But I have enough of a web presence (that’s also something you have to work at) so that most searches for Vicki Delaney will come up with my name.

I used to be a computer programmer. In the early days of the Internet, I wrote and maintained my department’s web page in raw HTML (the code the WWW is written in). So I know how to do this stuff. Do I? No, I’ve hired a professional. Because I want a professional looking site, and I just don’t have the time for learning all the new tools and for the time and frustration that would be involved in doing it myself. It can be expensive, but my advice is to either spend what you can, or spend the time to learn to do it well.

A good web page is your face, and the face of your books, to the world.

So please drop by my page, and say Hi.

Next week: A peek a my real face wearing the 1890s hat I've bought for the launch of Gold Digger: A Klondike Mystery.

Congrats for the new web page. I can understand that it is not an easy task you have to consider somnay important thongs like programming. The boca raton seo company upgrades into your site to ensure that it is always performing the way it should. Rating will also grow.

Rick Blechta writes on Tuesdays

Barbara Fradkin writes on alternate Wednesdays

Sybil Johnson writes on Alternate Wednesdays

Donis Casey writes on alternate Thursdays

John Corrigan writes on alternate Thursdays

Charlotte Hinger writes on alternate Fridays

Frankie Bailey writes on Alternate Fridays

Vicki Delany writes on the second weekend of every month

Mario Acevedo writes on the 4th Saturday of each month

Aline Templeton

Aline Templeton lives in Edinburgh in a house with a balcony overlooking the beautiful city skyline. Her series featuring DI Marjory Fleming is set in beautiful Galloway, in South-west Scotland. alinetempleton.co.uk

Rick Blechta

Rick has two passions in life, mysteries and music, and his thrillers contain liberal doses of both. He has two upcoming releases, Roses for a Diva, his sequel to The Fallen One, for Dundurn Press, and for Orca’s Rapid Reads series, The Boom Room, a second book featuring detectives Pratt & Ellis. You can learn more about what he’s up to at www.rickblechta.com. From the musical side, Rick leads a classic soul band in Toronto. Check out SOULidifiedband.com. And lastly, being a former line cook with an interest in all things culinary, he has a blog dedicated to food: A Man for All Seasonings.

Barbara Fradkin

Barbara Fradkin is a retired psychologist with a fascination for how we turn bad. Her dark short stories haunt the Ladies Killing Circle anthologies, but she is best known for her award-winning series featuring the quixotic, exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, published by Dundurn Press. The ninth book, The Whisper of Legends, was published in April 2013. Visit Barbara at barbarafradkin.com.

Sybil Johnson

Sybil Johnson’s love affair with reading began in kindergarten with “The Three Little Pigs.” Visits to the library introduced her to Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and a host of other characters. Fast forward to college where she continued reading while studying Computer Science. After a rewarding career in the computer industry, Sybil decided to try her hand at writing mysteries. Her short fiction has appeared in Mysterical-E and Spinetingler Magazine, among others. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in Southern California where she enjoys tole painting, studying ancient languages and spending time with friends and family. Find her at www.authorsybiljohnson.com.

Donis Casey

Donis is the author of six Alafair Tucker Mysteries. Her award-winning series, featuring the sleuthing mother of ten children, is set in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, AZ, with her husband, poet Donald Koozer. The latest Alafair Tucker novel, The Wrong Hill to Die On (Poisoned Pen Press, 2012), is available in paper or electronic format wherever books are sold. Readers can enjoy the first chapter of each book on her web site at www.doniscasey.com.

John R Corrigan

John R. Corrigan is D.A. Keeley, author of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Peyton Cote series, which is set along the Maine-Canada border. Bitter Crossing (summer 2014) will be the first of at least three novels in the series. Born in Augusta, Maine, he lives with his wife and three daughters at Northfield Mount Hermon School in western Massachusetts, where he is English department chair, a teacher, a hockey coach, and may very well be the only mystery writer in North America who also serves as a dorm parent to 50 teenage girls. A Mainer through and through, he tries to get to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, as often as possible. You can see what he's up to by visiting www.amazon.com/author/DAKeeley or dakeeleyauthor.blogspot.com or on Twitter (@DAKeeleyAuthor).

Charlotte Hinger

Charlotte Hinger is a novelist and Western Kansas historian. Convinced that mystery writing and historical investigation go hand in hand, she now applies her MA in history to academic articles and her depraved imagination to the Lottie Albright series for Poisoned Pen Press. charlottehinger.com

Frankie Bailey

Frankie Y. Bailey is a criminal justice professor who focuses on crime, history, and American culture. Her current project is a book about dress, appearance, and criminal justice. Her mystery series featuring crime historian Lizzie Stuart is set mainly in the South. Her near-future police procedural series featuring Detective Hannah McCabe is set in Albany, New York. Visit Frankie at frankieybailey.com.

Vicki Delany/Eva Gates

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of more than 25 books, including the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas cozy series, the Constable Molly Smith books, standalone novels of suspense, the Klondike Gold Rush series, and novellas for adult literacy. As Eva Gates, she is the author of the national bestselling Lighthouse Library cozy series from Penguin. Find Vicki at www.vickidelany.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor/

Mario Acevedo

Mario Acevedo is the author of the Felix Gomez detective-vampire series. His short fiction is included in the anthologies, You Don’t Have A Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens and Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, and in Modern Drunkard Magazine. Mario lives with a dog in Denver, CO. His website is marioacevedo.com.